Marketers tend to lean more creative than analytical. They’re building the vision, the assets, and the execution strategy, but when the performance report comes back, it’s more likely to be looked at as a scoreboard than a practical planning tool. 41.2% email open rate? That’s a win! 2.9% Instagram engagement rate. Down from last week! The real question is: What are you learning from these results to adjust next time? Monthly reporting isn’t about proving that your marketing worked — it’s about figuring out what to do next.

Scrappy teams that don’t have a dedicated analyst to make sense of the data may not have the bandwidth or know-how to extract meaning. But the truth is that you don’t need a sophisticated business intelligence tool or to stare at spreadsheets until your eyes cross to figure out why something is or isn’t working. You just need to know the right questions to ask. Once you have the answers, you can put your creative hat back on and use that information to design your next piece of marketing.

So, where do you begin? Let’s look at two channels we get asked about often: social and email.

How to Understand Social Media Results

Organic social media performance can be challenging to understand due to a variety of factors. For example, organic reach is at the mercy of the algorithm, engagement can happen outside of the post (like in DMs, Slack, texts), every platform defines and measures engagement differently, data is siloed across platforms, and the list goes on and on. 

So what’s a marketer to do? Take these steps:

1. Start by looking at what actually moved people: saves, clicks, meaningful comments, watch time.

2. Then ask: What do the best posts have in common? It could be topic, format, tone, timing, structure.

3. Build new content around your top patterns.

4. Continue to try new things. Your follower’s interests change, the algorithm could bring you new fans, and you might just find a new way to attract your audience’s attention.

How to Make Email Reporting Meaningful

This channel falls victim to the pass/fail scorecard pretty easily. Did we dip below our average open rate? Kill that subject line. Were click-throughs strong? Must have been the offer. If this sounds like how your team looks at email, you’re doing it wrong. Questions like these immediately tell us that you’re not A/B testing, and if you’re not A/B testing every email, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to strengthen your sends.

Here’s how to fix it:

1. Focus on testing one variable at a time. On an existing or new email, you can run subject line variations or test elements in the body. For subject lines, consider personalization, urgency, or question vs statement. In the body of the email, you could test the CTA, layout, colors, headline, images, or promotional offer. Whatever you’re testing, it should only be one thing. If you test multiple variables, you won’t know which drove the difference in performance.

2. Once you have results, type your numbers into a statistical significance calculator to find out the winner and optimize the email accordingly.

3. Continue to A/B test variables on the same email (if it’s an ongoing email, like triggers or nurture campaigns).

4. Incorporate top-performing variables in new and existing emails, and always A/B test for new learnings. 

Turning Reporting Into a Roadmap

At Unicorn Creative, we use reporting and KPIs as planning engines. We study what worked and didn’t, break down the patterns, and build new content around those wins. And we’re always testing new ideas. Once you start looking at reports as a roadmap, you can use the data to directly shape creative decisions, reduce guesswork, and make content more effective. 

Want a step-by-step guide to put all this into action? Fill out the form below for a free PDF that walks you through which metrics to look at, what questions to ask, and what to do next.

Or if DIY isn’t what you’re looking for, our team of unicorns is here to help you build a reporting process that actually informs your content plan. Reach out today and let’s make some marketing magic happen for your brand.